Summer Transfer Speculation and Shit

[AFC Leveller]

Manchester City closing in on TRIPLE deal for Sagna, Mangala and Fernando
MANCHESTER CITY chief executive Ferran Soriano has confirmed the newly-crowned Premier League champions are close to announcing their summer signings.

Soriano also confirmed some players will leave the club this summer, including Joleon Lescott, who won't be offered a new contract after five years at the club and Garteth Barry, who is also out of contract after spending last season on loan at Everton.

Soriano: "The planning has been done already. We don't do this in the summer, we do this during the year.

"We know that some players will be leaving because their contracts are finishing. We have some new players coming.

"But it's fair to say that the base of our team is going to be the same.

"These players are players who are winning. Remember, we have only been working with Manuel Pellegrini for one year so we are sure next year it will be better.





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[Marc Overmars]

Sagan won't start ahead of Zabaleta. Maybe they want to use him as a CB? Either way, just

[Niall_Quinn]

Sagna can fuck himself if he whores out his arse to the gypos for cash. Shows what he ever thought of the fans here. Cunt.

[Niall_Quinn]

Also got a horrible feeling Barry could be coming the other way.

[Munchies]

Newcastle are threatening legal action against controversial TV presenter Richard Keys after he claimed Hatem Ben Arfa 'chinned' manager Alan Pardew. Sportsmail can reveal that Newcastle have already taken their complaint to the Barclays Premier League and Keys' employer, BeIn Sports.

He was decent last season, but pretty shit now.

[Globalgunner]

He was decent last season, but pretty shit now.

Deserves an award if he really chinned that tosser. Full marks to him

[AFC Leveller]

Sagna can fuck himself if he whores out his arse to the gypos for cash. Shows what he ever thought of the fans here. Cunt.

Yep. Would show a total lack of class and respect to the fans if he were to join those cunts.

[I am invisible]

It might sound a little flippant but I think signing a competent reserve keeper really should be a formality. It's not necessarily an easy choice as the reserve becomes first choice with one injury to Sneezy, so he needs to be of a certain standard but it shouldn't take months of deliberating. There are plenty of competent keepers out there and though they all want first team they can't all turn down the lure of a big club.

I haven't noticed Marshall at all, though I hear he is statistically the best keeper in the league?!?....but actually I think it is quite common for a keeper in a team at the lower end of the league to have a keeper that is 'statistically' the best. I like Stekelenburg but there are many options.

With Gnabry I tend to ignore his age because he is that mature as a player. I think he has been rather unfortunate to not play more considering how he has performed when he has played so I wouldn't want to stock pile wingers with signing both Vela AND Remy.

The strategy imo should be to sign one top class wide player, ie Antoine Griezmann, who made the squad ahead of that tit Nasri lets not forget (though I think Nasri's omission in itself was strange) with world class potential and maybe another top class one like Remy if we must (and mainly him specifically because he won't command a hefty transfer fee).

The main draw of Vela, however tacitly expressed seems to be that he will command a nominal fee. However, if he isn't particularly better than what we have then we are just buying for the sake of it and that is why I don't think Wenger will.

Vela and Remy would definitely be an either/or choice for me - we need to add someone to provide competition and cover for Walcott, and those two would fit the bill very well, but signing both would be excessive and unnecessary. As you say, if we do end up going for a couple of wide-men, then we need to be looking at one top-class player, like a Griezmann or a Sanchez, and one bonus player, who would still have to be of a certain quality, but who wouldn't break the bank because there's other areas of the side that need to money more. Ideally, I'd want one of those wide men to lean more towards being a more traditional winger, who's more about running with the ball, and the other to lean more towards being a wide striker like Walcott, who's more about getting on the end of things.

I don't actually think that would leave us with a ridiculous stockpile of wide men? We'd have plenty of players who can do a job there at a pinch, but with several of them (Cazorla, Ozil, Podolski, Rosicky) I really don't think that playing wide should be their primary role. The way I see it, we need a first team squad of maybe 27 or 28 players - sounds like a lot, but it's basically 2 good options for every position, plus 2 or 3 utility players who can cover a couple of roles for a bit of added depth. Based on that, and assuming that e're sticking with 433, then this is how I view our current options, and where I think we need to strengthen...

CF: Giroud, [?????]

(Utility CF/Wide striker: Podolski)

Wide striker: Walcott, [????]
Winger: Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gnabry, [????]

AM/Playmaker: Ozil, Cazorla

(Utility AM/CM: Rosicky)

CM: Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta, [Diaby], [????]

(Utility CM/Fullback: Flamini)

RB: Jenkinson, [????]
LB: Gibbs, Monreal

CB: Koscielny, Mertesacker, [Vermaelen/????], [????]

GK: Szczesny, [Fabianski/????]

...I guess you could argue that this would leave us with maybe one too many wide players, but I've stuck an extra [????] next to Chamberlain and Gnabry because both of those guys are still quite raw, and also because I'm not sure whether Oclade-Chamberlain will staying there in the future or moving more central? I've also stuck an extra [????] in with the CMs, not because we're short on numbers, but because we can't rely on Diaby, Wilshere is still having injury issues, and because Arteta and our two utility options (Rosicky and Flamini) are all getting on a bit - this signing may not be critically urgent this summer, but it is something that we should at least be thinking about. Other than that though, I don't think that really leaves us with an excessively bloated squad?

[Power n Glory]

Yep. Would show a total lack of class and respect to the fans if he were to join those cunts.

We’ve had this happen to us so many times, it shouldn’t even be a talking point.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

We’ve had this happen to us so many times, it shouldn’t even be a talking point.

Personally not really fussed where he ends up, at the end of the day if this wasnt football it would be a no brainier for someone to go to a different employee to do the same job for more money. He's not going to go to PSG because 70% of his wages will go to the government unless he does a tax fiddle. Personally I'd be more annoyed if he joined City and we made no attempt to sign Micah Richards who would be an excellent full back and give us cover at centre back and is an Arsenal fan.